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Automated announcers that announce other things than trains

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VTPreston_Tez

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Just a thought because I believe the SWT 450/444 (or whatever goes to Weymouth) announcer has done the Maths listening exams in the 2009 paper.
Are there any other announcers that announce other things other than trains such as narrating TV shows, public service announcements, or even buses?
 
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tsr

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Just a thought because I believe the SWT 450/444 (or whatever goes to Weymouth) announcer has done the Maths listening exams in the 2009 paper.
Are there any other announcers that announce other things other than trains such as narrating TV shows, public service announcements, or even buses?

I believe the announcer on Croydon Tramlink was the voice behind some "Paddington Bear" audiobooks that I listened to as a child a good number of years ago. I'm always quite amused by that!

A lot of the auto-announcers are voiced by professional artists who offer a range of styles and accents for recordings. They are either freelance workers or are employed via an agency who selects their profile for various recordings.

The well-known voice of Phil Sayer, for example, is used for several stations' announcements, but he also records for adverts and the like.

Some voices are not so commonly used in the media, advertising, etc.

I believe a member of rail staff (named Matt?) is on this forum (so his full-time job is not as a voiceover artist or anything like that) but he has been selected to record some new announcements on FCC (IIRC!).

:)
 

causton

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I cannot remember whether he recorded the announcements or became a member of this forum first, but yes, there is a member of FCC staff named Matt who was subsequently chosen to record a few announcements for FCC (I believe I heard them at Finsbury Park the other week!) :)
 

TheJRB

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Just a thought because I believe the SWT 450/444 (or whatever goes to Weymouth) announcer has done the Maths listening exams in the 2009 paper.

That would be Celia Drummond. She is voice of a lot of SWT, Chiltern and Southern stations as well as Birmingham New Street and the Northern and Jubilee lines on LU.

Julie Berry is also used a lot: London Midland's 172s and 350s, all of Southern, Greater Anglia, First Capital Connect, Heathrow Connect and Southeastern's trains (at least those that actually have announcements) as well as the Piccadilly line.
 

causton

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Julie Berry is also used a lot: London Midland's 172s and 350s, all of Southern, Greater Anglia, First Capital Connect, Heathrow Connect and Southeastern's trains (at least those that actually have announcements) as well as the Piccadilly line.

I don't think I can listen to that Flora Proactiv advert now without hearing "This train calls at Finsbury Park, Potters Bar, Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City..."!
 

bnm

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The announcements on board (Croydon) Tramlink are voiced by BBC newsreader Nicholas Owen.
 

craigwilson

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Julie Berry is also used a lot: London Midland's 172s and 350s, all of Southern, Greater Anglia, First Capital Connect, Heathrow Connect and Southeastern's trains (at least those that actually have announcements) as well as the Piccadilly line.

There's a higher-pitched female voice that does the on-station announcements at Margate/Ramsgate (that I am aware of). Who does these?
 

jopsuk

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Are there any other announcers that announce other things other than trains such as narrating TV shows, public service announcements, or even buses?

All of them, I should think. They'll all be proffesional voice over artists or similar.
 

trentside

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There's a higher-pitched female voice that does the on-station announcements at Margate/Ramsgate (that I am aware of). Who does these?

I believe the female voice used by Southeastern is someone called Pauline.

All of them, I should think. They'll all be proffesional voice over artists or similar.

That's the case for most on-train announcements and systems provided by Ditra (those voiced by Phil and Celia). The systems supplied by Atos use members of their own staff and/or TOC staff depending on requirements.
 
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VTPreston_Tez

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That would be Celia Drummond. She is voice of a lot of SWT, Chiltern and Southern stations as well as Birmingham New Street and the Northern and Jubilee lines on LU.

So that's why they sound the same. I often wondered while on SWT "am I still on the Northern line?"
Thanks for the feedback everybody, much appreciated and I'd like to hear more.
 

D1009

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All of them, I should think. They'll all be proffesional voice over artists or similar.

Not necessarily. I won't name him in case he reads this forum, but one of the "live" announcers at New St was once asked to go to a recording studio in Nottingham for a week (all expenses paid obviously) to do a series of recordings of announcements to be used across the West Midlands. One of his colleagues asked
"why did they pick you"
"because I have an easily understood regional accent"
"but what happens if they don't speak Brummy"
(incredulous) "I'M NOT A BRUMMY".

I think the best recorded announcements on public transport in this country are on Sheffield Supertram. Does anyone know who is respomsible for them ?
 

talltim

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I think they should get Dave Lamb to do them all, with suitably withering sarcasm added in.
 

Aictos

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I cannot remember whether he recorded the announcements or became a member of this forum first, but yes, there is a member of FCC staff named Matt who was subsequently chosen to record a few announcements for FCC (I believe I heard them at Finsbury Park the other week!) :)

Matt recorded these announcements first at ATOS then became a member here.
 

PHILIPE

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On many occasions an automated announcement has come over at Cardiff Central "Will the Superintendent of the Line go to the Carriage Depot.
This is repeated continuously for about 5 minutes and I got so exasperated with it that I complained to ATW, The reply that I received was that it was a safety announcement and had to be made. Anybody out there with an Enigma Machine ?
 

tsr

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On many occasions an automated announcement has come over at Cardiff Central "Will the Superintendent of the Line go to the Carriage Depot.
This is repeated continuously for about 5 minutes and I got so exasperated with it that I complained to ATW, The reply that I received was that it was a safety announcement and had to be made. Anybody out there with an Enigma Machine ?

It's generally a reference to a fire alarm or security hazard, but I am led to believe that the system is particularly prone to setting this announcement off at Cardiff Central for no particular reason.

The location specified (e.g. "Carriage Depot") can refer to either a location that the public do not need to be concerned with, or else the location of the cause of the alert.

I am told the Inspector Sands messages (search on YouTube for an example) carry a similar meaning.
 
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